This section introduces aspects that may help facilitate a better understanding of the inventions. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is prior art or what is not prior art.
The evolution of cell phone and other communications has yielded numerous protocols and access networks for enabling communication between user equipment (UE) and the Internet or other networks. For example, access networks have been established according to LTE (3GPP), CDMA (3GPP2), WiMAX, and WiFi standards. Increasingly, UEs such as smart phones are implementing the capability to connect to multiple types of access networks. For example, it is now common for smart phones to enable connection to WiFi access networks in addition to a cellular access network such as LTE.
The third generation partnership project (3GPP) has developed standards defining an “access network discovery and selection function” (ANDSF), including enhancements for aiding the UE in automatically selecting alternative access networks for supporting some or all of the network traffic produced by the UE. 3GPP specifies an architecture to assist UE in access network discovery and selection. The architecture includes a client on the UE and a server, within the operator network. A UE reports its location (e.g., GPS, Cell ID) and requests (defined as PULL procedure) Access Network Discovery and Selection Rules (ANDSR). The ANDSF server, taking into consideration subscription, application, operator policy rules, etc., constructs ANDSR for the UE client.
However, the UE periodically reporting its location to the ANDSF Server consumes a considerable amount of UE resources (especially, battery power) and causes additional signaling traffic within the operator network. Thus, new solutions and techniques that are able to mitigate this issue would meet a need and advance wireless communications generally.
Specific embodiments of the present invention are disclosed below with reference to FIGS. 1-4. Both the description and the illustrations have been drafted with the intent to enhance understanding. For example, the dimensions of some of the figure elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements, and well-known elements that are beneficial or even necessary to a commercially successful implementation may not be depicted so that a less obstructed and a more clear presentation of embodiments may be achieved. In addition, although the logic flow diagrams above are described and shown with reference to specific steps performed in a specific order, some of these steps may be omitted or some of these steps may be combined, sub-divided, or reordered without departing from the scope of the claims. Thus, unless specifically indicated, the order and grouping of steps is not a limitation of other embodiments that may lie within the scope of the claims.
Simplicity and clarity in both illustration and description are sought to effectively enable a person of skill in the art to make, use, and best practice the present invention in view of what is already known in the art. One of skill in the art will appreciate that various modifications and changes may be made to the specific embodiments described below without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Thus, the specification and drawings are to be regarded as illustrative and exemplary rather than restrictive or all-encompassing, and all such modifications to the specific embodiments described below are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention.